Ferrari vs McLaren In The Birthplace Of F1

The British Grand Prix weekend got underway with a straight fight between Ferrari and McLaren. The four drivers from the two most successful teams in the history of the sport, filled the first four places in both of today’s free practice sessions.

It was advantage Ferrari in FP1 with Lewis Hamilton (1’26”892) ahead of Lando Norris (1’26”915), Oscar Piastri (1’27”042) and Charles Leclerc (1’27”095). McLaren gained the upper hand in FP2 with Norris fastest (1’25”816), 222 thousandths quicker than Leclerc, 301 ahead of Hamilton and 470 quicker than Piastri.

Two drivers made their very first appearance at an official Formula 1 meeting: running in FP1 were the Estonian Paul Aron in a Sauber and the British driver Arvid Lindblad in the Red Bull.

Three teams opted to use a set of Hards right from today with both their drivers: Aston Martin and Williams in FP1 and Haas in FP2. However, most of the work, especially on long runs, was carried out on the Medium compound with just a few drivers doing some actual long runs on Softs.

Lewis Hamilton – Fastest in FP1

“It’s been a really exciting day. Pretty incredible to be out on track at Silverstone in a Ferrari for the first time. The car felt good in both sessions, even though I hit some traffic on my fastest lap in FP2, so there’s definitely time to find. It’s always amazing to be back here. This is the greatest circuit in the world and definitely my favourite. Great to see so many people already here on a Friday. The atmosphere is just incredible.”

Lando Norris – Fastest in FP2

“Tricky conditions today. It wasn’t quite as easy as we would have liked, but we look strong. It’s only Friday, so there’s nothing to be too proud of just yet, and we’ve definitely got work to do overnight if we want to stay in this position. The competition looks very strong, and they’ll get stronger as the weekend goes on. We’ll get our heads down tonight and turn our focus to Qualifying tomorrow.” 

Simone Berra – Pirelli Chief Engineer

“Silverstone is one of the toughest tracks on the calendar as far as the tyres are concerned, not only because of the lateral forces to which they are subjected in the many high speed corners, but also in terms of wear. We got a taste of that in today’s two hours of free practice, especially in the second session. What this means first and foremost is that a one-stop strategy, although possible, is rather marginal.

We saw that the performance delta between the Soft and the Medium is slightly bigger than our earlier simulations, stabilising around the half second mark. Graining made an appearance, especially on the Soft and Medium and we believe this could also be the case on Sunday during the race, given that temperatures are expected to be lower than today’s.“

FORMULA 2

Pole position for Victor Martins (ART Grand Prix) at Silverstone in a time of 1’39”731. The Frenchman lapped 65 thousandths of a second quicker than Ireland’s Alex Dunne (Rodin Motorsport) while Jak Crawford (DAMS Lucas Oil) was third in 1’39”971.

For Silverstone, Pirelli has brought the Hard and Soft compounds, as was the case in past years. The softest compound delivers a significant advantage at the start, as well as allowing drivers to attempt overtaking moves to make up places. Because of this, it’s likely that the majority of drivers will go with this choice for the start of the Feature Race. Drivers will have to watch out for graining, but careful tyre management could see the first stint extended to between laps 6 and 9 without losing too much performance. The Hard on the other hand will be more consistent, allowing drivers to maintain good pace over a long stint. It won’t require much management and is also the only viable compound for the Sprint race.

FORMULA 3

Nikola Tsolov (Campos Racing) did it again at Silverstone, once again showing great form in qualifying to take his second consecutive pole. On his final run, the Bulgarian set a best time of 1’45”043, just 23 thousandths of a second quicker than the American Ugo Ugochukwu (Prema Racing) while championship leader, Brazil’s Rafael Camara (Trident) was third in 1’45”176.

In Silverstone, the Formula 3 cars are running the Hard compound, the hardest in the Pirelli range. The new 2025 compounds handle overheating better and therefore require less management in this regard, something that was a major concern in previous years, especially on tracks like Silverstone that generates significant forces on the tyres. Therefore, tyre wear is the aspect that needs to be managed carefully during the race. Getting the best out of the tyres should not be difficult, but in the closing stages of the race, the wear factor could come into play.